Baltimore City firefighter Jamar Simmons, 30, and Franklin Coit, 34, were arrested in July on prostitution, drug and weapons charges. They were indicted Wednesday on charges of conspiracy, interstate transportation for prostitution, coercion, sex trafficking conspiracy and sex trafficking of a minor.

Police and the FBI began investigating the pair in November 2011. The indictment charges that the men began operated an online prostitution ring around July 2009 from a space inside a warehouse at 208 S. Pulaski St. in southwest Baltimore.

The indictment said the men ran websites called backpage.com and BigCityDates that advertised positions online for exotic dancing and escort services to recruit women, but the sites were really meant to find jobs for prostitutes.

Detectives said in July that an informant told police that Simmons and Coit had "three to six girls working as prostitutes at any given time" either at the warehouse or at "various hotels in the Baltimore area."

The court documents also alleged that Simmons and Coit arranged for transportation to bring prostitutes to Maryland from several states as far away as Texas and South Dakota.

The documents said the men would take sexually explicit photos of the women they recruited, at least one of whom wasn't over the age of 18, and posted them on the websites so customers could then schedule a date.

Simmons has been a firefighter with the department since 2002. He was suspended without pay in July. There's no word yet if he's still employed by the department.

According to court documents, both men faced similar prostitution charges in 2010, but Simmons received probation before judgment. The charges against Coit were dropped, but officials said he does have a conviction for robbery and assault in another case. On Wednesday, he was indicted on charges of possessing a firearm as a felon.

Fire Department spokesman Kevin Cartwright explained in July why Simmons was still a member of the department in spite of the previous prostitution charges.

"The outcome of the case by the judicial system would have to be a guilty plea (for one of our members to be dismissed). If that's not the case, we don't get into probation before judgment. If he's guilty, then that's how we would proceed with our penalties and dispositions," Cartwright said.

Daniel Norris took a three-hitter into the eighth inning in his Detroit debut, J.D. Martinez hit a three-run homer and the Tigers beat the Baltimore Orioles 6-1 on Sunday to earn a split of the four-game series.